Cynthia Coffman

Case information

• Name: Cynthia Coffman
• Race: White
• Date of birth: 1962
• Age at crime: 24
• Place of crime: San Bernardino County, California

Timeline

• 11-7-1986 — Cynthia Coffman was connected to the murder of a white female aged 20 in San Bernardino County.
• November 14, 1986 — Coffman and Marlow were arrested; Coffman confessed to the murders.
• November 17, 1986 — Coffman and Marlow were formally charged with the murder of Corinna Novis; held over for trial without bond.
• July 18, 1989 — The murder trial opened in San Bernardino County.
• August 31, 1989 — Coffman was sentenced to death in San Bernardino County, California.
• 1992 — Coffman was convicted for another murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment.
• 2011 — Coffman was still on death row.
• August 19, 2004 — The California Supreme Court delivered an opinion in People v. Marlow and Coffman (in the Supreme Court of California), affirming the judgment.

Background

Cynthia Coffman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was born in 1962. She was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. She was the partner in crime of James Gregory Marlow. Coffman had been previously married and had a son named Joshua.

Coffman and Marlow were accused of killing four women in October–November 1986. They were arrested on November 14, 1986, after which Coffman confessed to the murders.

The offence

Murder and related crimes involving Corinna Novis (San Bernardino County)

On November 7, 1986, Corinna Novis, age 20, vanished in Redlands, California. She later had her body found in a shallow grave in Fontana.

A jury found Coffman and Marlow guilty of:

• Murder (Pen. Code, § 187)
• Kidnapping (§ 207, subd. (a))
• Kidnapping for robbery (§ 209, subd. (b))
• Robbery (§ 211)
• Residential burglary (§ 459)
• Forcible sodomy (§ 286, subd. (c))

The jury also found true special circumstance allegations that the murder was committed in the course of, or immediate flight from:

• Robbery
• Kidnapping
• Sodomy
• Burglary within the meaning of section 190.2, subdivision (a)(17)(A), (B), (D) and (G).

The jury further found that Coffman and Marlow were personally armed with a firearm (§ 12022, subd. (a)).

For Corinna Novis, the autopsy was performed by Dr. Gregory Reiber on November 17. Dr. Reiber concluded that Novis had been killed between five and 10 days previously. The marks included evidence consistent with ligature strangulation, with suffocation also possible due to soil in the back of her mouth. Dr. Reiber also found marks on her wrists consistent with handcuffs, and sperm in her rectum, with “no sign of trauma to her anus.”

Investigation

Investigators developed evidence linking Coffman and Marlow to the crimes. In the trial record, evidence included items connected to the victims and to Coffman and Marlow, including:

• Corinna Novis’s checkbook being found in a trash dumpster near a fast-food takeout bag containing papers bearing the names of Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow.
• A connection to a San Bernardino motel room, where the manager found stationery with practice signatures of Lynel Murray’s name.
• Fingerprints from both defendants reportedly being found inside Corinna Novis’s car.

Arrest and custody

On November 14, 1986, police were summoned to a mountain lodge at Big Bear City, California. The proprietor identified the guests as Marlow and Coffman. A 100-man posse found the lodge empty and searched through the woods; around 3:00 P.M. Coffman and Marlow were found hiking along a mountain road. They surrendered without a fight, wearing outfits stolen from the dry cleaning shop where Lynel Murray worked.

Within hours, Coffman led officers to a vineyard near Fontana, where Corinna Novis was found sodomized and strangled, lying in a shallow grave.

Coffman was arrested on November 14, 1986, and Coffman confessed to the murders after her arrest.

Trial

Guilt phase

A San Bernardino County jury convicted James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Lynn Coffman of one count each of the following:

• murder (Pen. Code, § 187),
• kidnapping (§ 207, subd. (a)),
• (b)),
• robbery (§ 211),
• residential burglary (§ 459) and
• forcible sodomy (§ 286, subd. (c)).

The same jury found true the special circumstance allegations concerning murder during or immediately flight from:

• robbery,
• kidnapping,
• sodomy and
• burglary.

The jury returned verdicts and sentenced Coffman to death on August 30, with Coffman later receiving a death sentence affirmed through the appellate process described below.

Defense and expert testimony on battered woman syndrome

Coffman testified on her own behalf, describing her relationship with Marlow, his threats and violence toward her, and participation in murders due to fear that he would harm her or her son. Coffman presented the testimony of Dr. Lenore Walker, a psychologist and expert on battered woman syndrome, to support her defense that she lacked intent to kill.

Robin Long testified as a jailhouse informant about statements Coffman allegedly made while incarcerated.

Evidentiary and instructional issues addressed on appeal

The California Supreme Court opinion addressed multiple claims, including:

• denial of severance motions,
• denial of change of venue,
• restrictions on voir dire,
• issues involving juror bias,
• issues involving statements taken after invocation of counsel,
• admission of jailhouse correspondence,
• accomplice instructions,
• instructional issues involving first degree felony murder and forcible sodomy,
• instructional issues involving CALJIC No. 2.15 and consciousness of guilt,
• instructional issues involving battered woman syndrome and related coercion/duress concepts,
• and instructions regarding natural and probable consequences doctrine.

In the guilt phase, the Supreme Court ultimately stated that it affirmed the judgment in its entirety.

Quotes included in the record

Cynthia Coffman told her lawyer in a jailhouse visit: “Yeah, she told him, pointing to her backside. You can find someone to help me lose this damn tattoo!”

The Supreme Court’s opinion included an analysis quoting the prosecutor’s guilt-phase summation argument:

“The essence of these special circumstances is that the murder itself must be to facilitate the underlying crimes of burglary, robbery, kidnapping, but it doesn't have to happen simultaneously.
If the decision was in the mind of the perpetrator of the crimes that it would help them get away with the crime by murdering this person, the special circumstances is [sic] satisfied. It doesn't matter when they are murdered.”

“If you determine, as the evidence makes abundantly clear, that Corinna Novis was killed to eliminate her as a witness, to kidnap for robbery[,] for burglary and for sodomy, that is a murder during the course of those crimes. [¶] Pure and simple. You can't have a purer example of killing somebody to facilitate the commission of the crime. [¶] . . . [¶] We had kind of an example of that in this case and it related to Corinna Novis's checks. [¶] From the evidence, when Corinna is kidnapped they probably take her purse with the checks in them pretty quickly. You can assume the checks were in her purse. [¶] Corinna gets killed the night they take her. But when is the robbery involving the checks actually completed? Isn't it actually completed days later when the checks are forged and they pass the checks to get the money? That is what they really want. [¶] You see, here is a case where they have killed Corinna a couple of days before they actually complete that part of the robbery they were intending. But because the thought was we are going to take all of her money, it doesn't matter they killed her a couple of days before the checks were cashed. Same principle applies to the burglary.”

Sentencing

Coffman was sentenced to death in San Bernardino County, California, on August 31, 1989.

The Supreme Court opinion described that:

• The jury returned a verdict of death, and
• the trial court entered judgment accordingly. The automatic appeal was addressed in the Supreme Court opinion.

Coffman later received a life imprisonment sentence after a further trial in 1992 for another murder.

Appeals

California Supreme Court decision (2004)

The California Supreme Court case was:

• People v. Marlow and Coffman, Supreme Court of California, opinion delivered by Werdegar, J.
• The Court affirmed the judgment in its entirety.

The opinion states:

• “The jury returned a verdict of death, and the trial court entered judgment accordingly.”
• “We affirm the judgment in its entirety.”

The opinion addressed numerous issues raised by Cynthia Lynn Coffman and James Gregory Marlow, and rejected them.

Other details

Death penalty status after the 2004 opinion

The case summary included that Coffman was still on death row in 2011.

Additional sentences mentioned in the case summary

The case summary stated that Coffman was convicted in 1992 for another murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.